A new Smash Bros. game is finally coming out, and the internet has come alive with fresh discussions about how exactly the series has been ruined forever. Having trouble following the conversation? Never fear! We here at Badnix have compiled an exhaustive glossary for competitive Smash Bros. terminology.

Dash Attack Cancel – considering doing a dash attack, then changing your mind.

Directional Influence – the influence exerted on your character’s movement by tilting the analog stick.

Donkey Kongress – advanced strategy in which one or more players use Donkey Kong’s down B ground pound move for the entire match’s duration.

Edge-hogging – overusing Sonic the ‘Edgehog.

Gravity Cancel – glitch that allows your character to set their Y velocity in the opposite direction of the game’s default gravitational acceleration. Referred to in official Nintendo literature as ‘jumping’.

Hurtbox – item crates that explode when you hit them.

Jump Cancel – opposite of a Gravity Cancel.

L-canceling – playing as Mario, then insisting the match be restarted with you playing as Luigi because you remembered that the Fludd move is terrible.

Metagame – the wider set of advanced techniques used by players who main Meta Knight.

Nair – neutral air. All air not occupied by either a) an opponent or b) an opponent’s projectile attack is considered neutral and should not be tried as an enemy combatant, as ratified per the terms of the ’09 Smashboards Accords.

PS (Pixel Spam) – triggering your fighter’s animations at a rate that overloads the game’s frame buffer, crashing the game and sparing you a defeat.

RAR (Reverse Aerial Rush) – backing off from an attack by jumping on the little spring sticking out of Mega Man’s loyal companion, Rush.

Sakurai – Nintendo employee whose involvement with the Smash Bros. series consists of ruining game mechanics and preventing beloved characters from being added as fighters. The exact reasons for his employment are unknown.

Shield Grab – grabbing an opponent while their shield is active. Quickly mastered by all but the most amateur players.

Shine – item collected by Mario in the ’02 sleeper hit Super Mario Sunshine.

Templetropy – refers to the increased likelihood of Stock matches played on the Hyrule Temple stage not ending before the heat death of the universe.

Tournament Play – changing the item settings to “Low”.

Tripping – jokingly taking Smash Bros. games too seriously. For example, people who argue that Melee is the only decent Smash Bros. game are clearly tripping.

Wavedash – not an actual term; “wavedash” is a long-running in-joke used within the competitive scene to prank novice players. If one or more player begins discussing “wavedashing” mechanics in your presence, the correct response is to laugh and inform them that they are tripping.

So I don’t think I’m going to blow too many minds here by mentioning that Super Mario World is a big influence on this storyline. For example, Monday’s strip draws on a similar bit (pictured above) from the Nintendo Power comic adaptation. Mario World was one of the first games I ever played, it’s still one of my favorites, and it’s been fun doing kind of a long-form homage – but, as is often the case with Badnix, other references tend to sneak their way in.

Thus, the new character ‘Yokoi’. If you’re not familiar, Gunpei Yokoi was one of the most important luminaries in the Golden Age of Nintendo. Starting out as a maintenance worker in one of Nintendo’s playing card factories (back in the early ’60’s, when playing cards were the only thing Nintendo did), he was “discovered” by the company’s president and was fashioned into a successful toy designer. He went on to follow the company’s trajectory over the next few decades into game development, inventing the Game & Watch series and the Game Boy, as well as developing immortal software like Metroid and Kid Icarus. He even mentored a fresh-faced Shigeru Miyamoto during the development of Donkey Kong. (And he created the Virtual Boy. Probably kinder not to bring that up.)

If you’re interested, there’s a documentary about Gunpei up on Youtube – truthfully I’ve only skimmed it, but it seems like it covers a lot of the good bits. Suffice it to say, he was a brilliant and fascinating guy and games owe a lot to him as a medium. So, I’m happy to have a lil’ nod to him tucked away in my game-themed comic strip.

Except, I guess I immediately renamed the character in question to “Doctor Mittens”. So. Um. None of this counts. BLOG POST INVALIDATED!

Well, it’s been a long wait, but after many months of planning and toil – Badnix: World 3 is finally beginning!

Starting next week, new Badnix comics will be posted weekly, every Monday and Wednesday. Why the cut-down to two days per week? Well, as evidenced by today’s recap strip, every new update will now be a full-page comic!!

It’s a pretty crazy shift for me – I’ve only ever really drawn short-form comics – but it felt like a natural progression, and one that will go a long way towards making every update as awesome as it can possibly be. I’ve really been enjoying working on the new comics, and I hope you guys will take a shine to ’em, too.

I also have some MAJOR changes in store for the site, which I’ll be rolling out in the next couple of weeks – so keep your eyes open for those as well!

Anyway, it’s exciting to be back, and I’m stoked to finally reveal what my cast of dumb monster characters has been getting up to over the past couple of months… come back next week and find out! (There may or may not be some dinosaurs involved. If that sweetens the pot at all.)

-CC

Shovel Knight is the best. For those who don’t know, somehow, it’s a Kickstarter-ed retro indie game that came out a few weeks ago. And unlike the vast majority of retro indie games, “retro” was not used as a code word for “sloppy graphics we drew in MS Paint over the weekend”. Totally brilliant game, and it absolutely feels like it can stand shoulder to shoulder with the NES gems it harkens back to.

My favorite bit of Shovel Knight was the “Order of No Quarter”, the oddly themed confederation of knights you fight at the end of each stage. What is it about bosses like the Koopa Kids or the robot masters from Mega Man that makes their names and designs stick in your head, years after you’ve put down the game? No idea, but these guys have that in spades.

Anyway, I’ve done some art of them and I thought I’d share it with you –

I’ve been trying to get in the habit of finishing more of my non-Badnix doodles and posting them on my tumblr. So, if that at all interests you, give it a look!

– CC